Dark Times

Well yesterdays report will have to be today. Things are happening here that concerns us all.

Yesterday morning, we all awoke to the sound of screaming, inside the Depot. One of the men and women that came in the vans to the base had bunked together in one of the few remaining rooms we have. No one thought anything of it as we have ‘it’s not our business unless it hurts someone’ attitude.
Well, anyway, the screaming was coming from their room. Not the excited, ecstasy-type screaming, but blood curdling, fear racked screaming. It woke me up from my medical induced slumber, luckily my fever has broken, but I am still dizzy if I move fast or try to exert too much, not to mention my leg wound is still very much an acute pain. I stumbled down the hallway using the wall to support, people, mostly women, were moving past me to see the noise. I had grabbed my 9mm in case the base was compromised and had it held down at my side as I stumbled as fast as I could. Near the back of the base, were two women with their back to a door, bracing it. The door would pound and move then stop. The screaming had stopped a few seconds ago. Blood pooled at the bottom of the door. I quickly looked at the women, neither which I knew by name, over and noticed no wounds. In my fogged brain I also noticed a distant lack of guards or men. The door started to pound again and the women around me all gasped or screamed. The ones holding the door looked ashen, but held their feet apart and pushed back at the door. That is also when I saw the door knob was broken and hanging by one bolt.

‘What the Hell is going on?’ I asked looking around; wild eyed women looked back at me. The one closest to me, one of the women also from the van convoy from, Friday? Was it? I can’t remember now, answered me.
‘Kurt must have been bitten and never told us, Mary was his girl, and they were both in there..’She stopped as the pounding started again with more force. By this time, Odessa and the Major had gotten here. The Major looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders. He echoed my question, and we figured out Kurt, which I really don’t remember too well, must have been infected and must have either bitten or killed Mary his girlfriend. When the screaming started, the closest people, two women from their group, Missy and Jenny, came to see what was up. They opened the door and immediately pushed it back shut and were now holding it. Kurt ‘turned’ apparently and had, most likely from the amount of blood, torn Mary apart in the room. The Major got the hallway cleared as I asked Odessa to get her shotgun, and I moved up to the door to have a look. The skinny chicken wire reinforced window above the door knob was shattered and blood spattered. The Major joined me and relieved one of the women holding the door. I could just barely see Kurt moving around the room, turning the cot over, tossing the small desk around then he came at the door again. BAM. He hammered at the door. I caught a glimpse of his face. I will never forget it. I have seen the face of madness; I can truly believe that now. Blood was flecked from his mouth; his eyes were red, like all the blood vessels had broken. He did *not* move like a Z. He was quick, almost like a lunatic at high tide on a beach lit by a full moon. Reminded me of all those werewolf movies I saw as a kid.
‘What is it?’ The Major whispered to me as the pounding stopped. The other woman, Jenny, was a stocky woman with thick arms, and I could see her straining to keep the door closed. I gave her a grim smile and turned to the Major.
‘I am not sure, he’s crazed looks like he killed the woman in there. He looks like he has rabies not some kind of zombie virus.’ The Major nodded grimly. The door was impacted again and this time gave a little as Jenny slipped in the blood. I slammed against the door, leaning all my weight on it until the pounding stopped.
‘Where in the Hell is everyone?’ I asked the Major as the stars cleared my eyes.
‘Everyone but the few men we have on wall duty are out on missions to get materials today. I am afraid to call in the ten men out there to handle this. We can handle this on our own.’ Odessa came around the corner in a hurry with her 12 gauge. The shotgun was a Mossberg with a ‘Spec-Ops’ stock on it. The stock took about 70% of the recoil out of any shot. It was a great gun to use without making your shoulders bruised for days. She pumped the gun and loaded a shell into it. I motioned her over and traded my pistol for the shotgun.
‘Major, get the hell back. You don’t need to be here in case this goes south. Odessa, help Jenny with the door.’ I traded places as the Major started to speak.
‘No offense, but get clear Major, now!’ I moved back up the hallway about five feet. The Major drew is pistol and moved back around the corner. He would not go far, but he was at least out of the way.
‘When I say so, both of you let go of the door and run past me, okay?’ Odessa and Jenny both nodded. The door started to pound again with more force than last time. When it stopped I looked at them both and yelled ‘Now!’

Both women moved off to my right as fast as they could without falling on the slick floor. I waited. I could hear things being tossed around in the room. The door flew open and there he was. He was covered in blood, his face contorted in a strange grin. His wild eyes spotted me and he made to move. I pulled the trigger. The blast staggered me into the wall and I slid to the floor. I pumped the empty shell out and loaded the next one. The double aught buckshot at the mean distance of five feet shredded his face and nearly decapitated him. The body stood, arms flailing for an eternity, before falling with a wet splash to the floor. The Major was there helping me up when movement in the room made us both stop moving. Mary, or what was left of her was struggling to rise from the bloody floor in the room.
‘Shit.’ Was all I could say as we watched more in awe than fear. Her entire stomach cavity was missing and her neck was chewed open. Dead white eyes looked at us and her mouth started working, making that robotic chomping motion. I stood there braced against the wall as the world was tilting out of balance when the Major took the shotgun from my hand and moved to the doorway. The sound seemed louder when someone else pulled the trigger. Jenny and Odessa came around the corner at that time, and I thought they were both going to be sick. The Major handed Odessa her shotgun back and helped me back to my room. He gave orders to have the room sealed and posted Jenny and Odessa as guards to keep people from sightseeing. He also sent for the Doc, one of the older women who normally watched the children went to fetch him.

Back in my room. I settled back down on my cot and the Major grabbed a chair and turned it backwards to sit in it.
‘Damn foolish what you did.’
‘Why?’ I asked closing my eyes as the world spun again. I then noticed somewhere along the walk back we had both left our bloody shoes in the hallway.
‘You already have an infection; you could have caught that shit doing that. Your immune system is already compromised.’
‘And you should not risk yourself in stupid shit as that. Next time call in a couple of guys form the walls. Damn foolish not to have enough people here anyway. Ten guys and these women, could not hold this place. I am in shape to do shit and the older guys working on the Depot are just too old or out of shape, would be suicide for them.’
‘You done? Good. You are right. I was stupid. I just want to get as much done as possible as quickly as we can.’
‘Why? You don’t think this shit is going to end soon do you? We will *always* have more to do. Zak to kill, food to find, people to help. We are trying to be the good guys here. The world is a Bad Place now.’
I was tired and my whole body ached. I turned to get some more anti-biotics and Tylenol. The Major helped me and stood up.
‘That is why I like you. No Bullshit. You are right of course. Maybe I am getting too old for this shit. Maybe someone else should lead or be commander, whatever.’
‘Stop feeling so damn sorry for yourself. No one else *wants* the job, don’t you get that? You’re trapped here with us. Now let me get some rest old man.’ He laughed at that.
‘Oh yeah, get Odessa away from that blood, will ya? She gets really ill being around anything like that. Or your food is going to taste funny the next coupla days.’ He nodded to me and went out. I passed out then until today.

What happened while I was unconscious.

The Doc said the same viral strain was in Kurt’s’ blood sample as was in the body he was studying earlier. Which is not good. However, Mary’s blood did not contain the same virus even though she was killed by him. She did have the ‘common’ virus which we all call the ‘Z strain’. The Doc is making some theories but the base case is this; The ‘Z strain’ seems to be an offshoot of the other virus, and the main virus which he has yet to name, is in the Fast Zombies. The Fast Zombies are misnomer. They are *not* dead, just infected humans. The ‘Z strain’ re-animates dead bodies and makes them crave other humans. Doc believes the main virus is manmade as it contains properties that are find in Rabies, Aids, BSE(or Jakob Desease )and hemorrhagic fever. He said it is too much of a super-bug to be a natural one. But alcohol and bleach kill it outside the body rather easily which is good, because if it was a protein like BSE it would be near impossible to disinfect an area where blood was spilled. He tried a few samples of dog blood, and it seems the virus does not take to them. He said if he had some fresh pigs blood he could do more but this is really not his field. He says he also needs more equipment to be sure, thus the hospital raid.

Jake’s reporting Zak is moving in packs through the town and they seem to be centered on the hospital. We have started pouring the walls today when the rains came forcing us inside. The dogs started barking around noon, and luckily everyone was back on Sunday to defend. We got hit by a large wave of deadheads. They seem to be testing our defenses now. They don’t spread out and mob like before. Although a good deal fell into our moat and we dropped some gas on them and burned them.
This was a bad thing to do. Apparently the smell of burning zombies draws others. We counted in the neighborhood of 500 or so before it was all over. We had to put the dogs inside as they were driving us nuts and seem to be bringing in more zombies to us. The moat around the depot made the road to the gates a choke point and we used it to good effect.

At this time we have men out in backhoes burying the dead. We did not lose any people on this attack but our ammo situation on our rifles is getting serious. I was able to go get my own food today and the throbbing dizziness in my head has calmed down. While my leg is still a constant reminder I can at least function again. John stopped by and we were going over ideas of making more Zbaits and placing them up the road from us in all directions to keep the zombies from getting close to the Depot. The alarm is going off again; well we gotta go see what is up.

Over.